


Stay with Me and I'll Have It Made

by i-wanna-be-your-last (hmweasley)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, The X Factor Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:17:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2779616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmweasley/pseuds/i-wanna-be-your-last
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis auditioned for The X Factor in order to achieve his dreams, but he didn't expect to create even greater dreams once he got there. Dreams that involved a certain boy he met in a bathroom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay with Me and I'll Have It Made

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally supposed to be longer and chaptered, but that didn't pan out. Instead, it became this. I decided to post it anyway.
> 
> [Russian translation.](https://ficbook.net/readfic/4904310)

_I just want someone to say to me_  
I'll always be there when you wake  
Ya know I'd like to keep my cheeks dry today  
So stay with me and I'll have it made  
\- “No Rain” by Blind Melon

The day was sunny and bright, helping Louis keep his confidence up as he stood in the long line. After already going through a private audition with the producers, he’d have thought the taped auditions would have less of a crowd, but he knew from years of watching The X Factor that there would be people everywhere. He’d been so confident immediately after being told he’d move on to televised auditions, but now that he could see the sheer amount of other people in the same position, Louis wondered if he’d actually accomplished something as significant as he had thought.

He took a deep, calming breath for the millionth time in just minutes. Hannah’s hand was in his, and his mother’s kept coming to rest on his back. They were trying to be reassuring, but with the summer sun shining down on them all day, Louis was beginning to feel sweat wherever they touched him. It was becoming stifling, and Louis rose on his tiptoes again to see how long the line stretched in front of them. He’d been watching it closely, trying to figure out how long he had until he’d be inside. It never seemed to move.

There’d be another long wait inside of course, but at least there would be air conditioning. And chairs. Hopefully. He couldn’t be completely certain.

As Louis continued his attempts to stretch his body to its tallest possible height, he caught sight of camera crews ambling towards their area of the line. Louis felt his heart speed up. He’d known cameras would be on him, but if they were coming for him now, he wasn’t prepared.

He needn't have worried because the cameras headed instead for a boy and his family just ahead of Louis. He’d been watching that boy intermittently while they’d been standing in line, but now Louis took advantage of the commotion to watch the boy more attentively. He seemed young. Louis thought this may have been the first year the boy was allowed to audition, which would put him a couple of years younger than Louis.

Louis took in the boy’s gangly build and curly hair. He couldn’t figure out what it was about the boy that had him hooked, and that drove him crazy. How could he feel this draw that he couldn’t explain to some boy he didn’t even know? The boy definitely wasn’t bad looking. Louis would have been insane if he’d said otherwise. Still, there was some sort of charm about the boy that couldn’t be accounted for with his looks alone, and Louis didn’t know how he was picking up on it when he hadn’t even spoken to the boy.

The boy was led to a stool amongst the crowd where the crew sat him down in front of the cameras and started asking questions. Hannah and Louis’s family were all watching closely now too, voicing observations that Louis couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to. It was almost entirely mindless chatter in pointless efforts to calm his (and their own) nerves. Louis’s intrigue about the boy was easily passed off as nervousness, and Louis was thankful for not having to explain his fascination to his girlfriend. That was a conversation few, if any, secondary school relationships could handle.

Louis couldn’t hear anything the boy or the crew members were saying, so he watched the boy’s face as he talked instead. Louis was fascinated. The boy thought hard about the questions before answering, and something about the crease in the boy’s eyebrows after each question was asked caused Louis’s stomach to flutter.

Louis watched the boy exhale a sigh of relief once the camera crew told him he was free to go back to his spot in line. A woman who must have been his mother quickly enveloped him into a hug. The look of pride on her face was clear as she beamed at him.

“I wonder if he’s any good,” Hannah said, finally pulling Louis’s attention back to her.

“I’m sure he is.” Louis wasn’t quite sure why he was defending the talent of a boy he didn’t even know and hadn’t seen perform, but something told him that the boy was meant to be famous. And not just for his attractiveness, even if that was all Louis could know at the moment.

The camera people were coming for Louis now, effectively cutting Hannah off from anything she was going to say about the boy. By the time Louis was finished, Hannah and his family wanted to talk about nothing more than Louis’s own interview. No one brought up the boy again, even as Louis continued to watch him from a distance.

XXX

In the time between his audition and bootcamp, Louis’s thoughts wandered back to the boy several times. He wouldn’t have called it a crush so much as a passing interest. The boy had gone in to see the judges before Louis, and Louis hadn’t seen him come out. He couldn’t deny that he was holding out hopes of seeing the boy at bootcamp. Maybe they’d get to speak to each other finally.

Finally. As if this was something Louis had been agonizing over forever. It almost felt like it. There was something strange about this. Something that wasn’t normal. Louis thought that maybe he should push the boy out of his mind, but he couldn’t. And didn’t want to.

Louis wasn’t sure what speaking to the boy would do to him. Maybe he’d become disillusioned once he’d actually met the boy. That might be nice after the odd sorts of feelings he’d been getting. He wasn’t too preoccupied by the boy. It wasn’t affecting his daily life or anything like that, but he still didn’t like that his thoughts were drifting back to that boy at all. Especially not at night when he was trying to sleep.  
Once the first day of bootcamp arrived, Louis was far too worried about how he’d come across to the judges and television viewers to spare a thought for the boy. Now he was just nervous. There’d be insanely talented people at bootcamp, and Louis wasn’t very confident that he’d measure up. He’d probably make a complete fool of himself. After all, they sent through terrible acts every year just so people could laugh at them. Was Louis one of those?

He hadn’t thought so at first, but now he was having doubts.

People were milling about everywhere when Louis arrived, not unlike his previous audition. He’d left his mum behind at the hotel, and Hannah was all the way back in Doncaster even though she’d tried so hard to convince Louis she should come. Louis hadn’t wanted all of them around if he embarrassed himself too badly. His mum was only here because she’d refused to let him travel to London on his own whether he was legally an adult or not. He wasn’t sure how she’d deal with The X Factor house if he got through, but they’d deal with that if it came.

Bootcamp was crazy, and Louis was only an hour in at this point. People milled about everywhere. Contestants of all ages were high on adrenaline, but the younger contestants were particularly crazy with few authority figures around to make them settle down. Production assistants, who had been given the job of keeping everyone under control, wandered around, but between the importance of other jobs and the uncaring brush offs of the contestants, everyone was left largely un-reprimanded for anything.

Louis had yet to see the boy from auditions, but he had met a boy named Aiden Grimshaw who would be a great deal of fun if they both got through to live shows. Louis was joking around with Aiden when a certain curly head of hair caught his eye. The boy. There were a lot of people between them, but the younger girls were short enough that Louis could make out the boy’s face above theirs. Louis tuned out Aiden’s voice as he watched the boy laugh with a blonde Irish boy who had introduced himself to Louis as Niall earlier in the day.

Aiden was quick to call Louis’s attention back to him, but even as Louis listened to whatever story Aiden was telling him now, he kept half of his attention on the boy on the other side of the room. Several minutes later, Louis watched the boy excuse himself from Niall and start making his way towards the toilets.

Louis couldn’t shake the feeling that following someone into a restroom was an incredibly creepy thing to do, but apparently he was becoming a creep.

“Er,” he interrupted Aiden mid-speech. “I think I need to use the loo.”

“Yeah, whatever. Go talk to that kid you keep staring at.”

Louis blushed a light pink but otherwise ignored Aidens’ remark. He’d lost sight of the boy by the time he reached to restroom but found him standing at one of the urinals in the otherwise deserted room. Louis walked right up to the urinal directly beside the boy, not thinking about how he didn’t have to piss or how weird it was to stand right beside the boy when every other urinal was currently unused. The boy, for his part, didn’t seem to mind Louis’s proximity. He startled a bit when Louis moved towards him, but as his eyes raked over Louis, a smile overtook his features. The smile was bright and took up the boy’s whole face. Louis had seen it from afar, but having it directed at him was an entirely different experience. Louis could feel his heart thumping in his chest. So loud that he imagined the boy must be able to hear.

Louis smiled back but didn’t say anything as he willed himself to piss in order to avoid looking like a complete idiot. Louis had become so focused that he was startled when he felt something slightly wet hit him from the direction of the urinal the boy stood at. Louis could do nothing but stand there in shock for several moments before he looked up into the bright red face of the boy beside him.

“Oops,” the boy muttered, looking absolutely mortified.

From anyone else, Louis would have probably blown his top off by now, but something about the boy’s expression was endearing and made Louis unable to find a fault with him. Besides, Louis did take the urinal right beside him when there were plenty of other good ones. It was his own fault really.

Louis summoned up the most reassuring smile he could. “Hi,” he said brightly. He went to offer out his hand, but then thought better of it.

“Hi,” the boy responded, the red in his face lessening slightly. He had zipped up his pants and was moving toward the sinks. Louis followed, forgetting all about his struggles with willing the pee to come and not even acknowledging that he’d done nothing but stand at the urinal.

“I’m Louis,” he told the boy as they washed their hands side by side.

“Harry,” the boy offered. Louis wanted to repeat the name out loud for himself and cherish the way his mouth formed the words, but he refrained. He’d become enough of a creep already.

The boy’s voice was lower than Louis had expected, and Louis had a feeling it would only deepen as he got older. The thought sent shivers down his spine. Even up close, Louis couldn’t shake the feeling that this boy was going to do something amazing with his life. Harry deserved to be admired.

“Can I have your autograph?” Louis asked without really thinking.

Harry appeared startled. “Mine? Why?”

Louis shrugged. “You’re going to be famous, mate. I sense it. Who wouldn’t want to say they got an autograph off you before all that?”

Harry was a light pink again, but he nodded in submission. “Okay. That’s fine. Bit weird, but fine. Do you have paper and a pen? Because I don’t.”

Louis did, in fact, have paper and a pen. He was determined to do his absolute best at bootcamp after being so unhappy with his audition, and that desire had led to him scribbling notes for himself out on a piece of paper and sticking it and a pen in his pocket before leaving the hotel. He pulled the paper out now, trying his best to hide what he’d written.

“You should really start.” He smiled gently at Harry as he handed him the paper.

Harry was taken aback. He hadn’t expected for Louis to actually have the stuff on him. “Were you planning to sign a lot of autographs yourself then?” he joked.

Louis blushed for the first time, although the pink wasn’t as clear on his tan face as it had been on Harry’s pale one. “Uh, no. I just, uh, I just had some stuff written down to remember.”

He cleared his throat awkwardly as he held the paper out to Harry. Harry took it and hesitated slightly before scribbling out his name in the cursive handwriting exactly like what Louis had been taught in school. It didn’t look like the signature of someone famous, and Louis found that all the more endearing. Harry apparently wasn’t one of the contestants, like Louis, who already had their signature figured out after hours of practicing for any potential fans.

“Thank you,” Louis offered once Harry had handed both the paper and pen back to him.

“You’re welcome.” Harry smiled. “Thanks for being the first to ask for my autograph. That’s something I’ll remember, you know?”

Louis nodded, the pink on his cheeks darkening as he thought of Harry being famous and still remembering this small moment with him.

“I think I’ll deserve free concert tickets then. Once you’re selling out arenas.”

Harry’s lips twitched as he held in a laugh. “Believe me. I’ll remember that, and if there are ever any arenas, I’ll be sure to get you those tickets.”

“I’ll hold you to that. I’ll even fight through security if I have to, so you better mean it.”

Harry snorted, unable to hold in his laughter anymore. “I do. Promise.”

“Good.”

The two boys stood watching each other and smiling before Louis realized that they were still in the bathroom. He cleared his throat and pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the door.

“I guess we should head back out there. People might wonder what we’re doing in the loo for so long.”

Harry nodded. “Right. Don’t want to miss anything.”

“Right,” Louis agreed. They smiled at each other one last time before leaving the bathroom.

Louis lost Harry in the crowd soon after.

It was unsurprising that a building full of singing competition contestants would also be full of a lot of music. Almost everyone had joined in at some point or another, but Louis had avoided drawing too much attention to himself. He wasn’t one of those who were belting out solos for everyone to hear. He was content with singing along with the crowd until it was his turn on stage.

Louis kept that up for the entire week of bootcamp, only singing solo when it was necessary. He also continued to watch Harry as closely as he could. He learned small bits and pieces about the boy, including the fact that his last name was Styles. Harry Styles. Could the boy seem more like a pop star in the making?

But the two boys didn’t speak. Things were hectic, and as the week went on without another conversation, it started to turn into a game. They may not have spoken to each other again except one instance to get a quick picture, but they would glance at each other constantly. Louis would watch Harry closely until the younger boy made eye contact. Then they’d smile at each other until the attention of one of the boys was pulled away. They played it out multiple times over the week, and Louis thought it might have been funner than actually talking to the boy.

A part of him wondered if the distance he was keeping was unconsciously due to Hannah. Maybe not speaking to Harry made Louis feel better about the flirting smiles they shared, about the butterflies he felt every time he just knew that Harry was near. Mostly though, Louis just liked the feeling he got out of such innocent looks. They were fun and harmless. No matter what the outcome of bootcamp, neither of them would have to go home with thoughts of the random boy they’d been getting to know back in London. Keeping it lighthearted and innocent was for the best.

Louis’s nerves were at an all time high when the end of the week rolled around and they were finally set to learn who would be going through to the judges’ houses. He’d been working his arse off the entire week, but he still wasn’t sure if it would be enough.

When the his name wasn’t called as one of the boys going through, Louis was heartbroken but not surprised. What did surprise him was not hearing the other name he has been listening for: Harry’s. The idea that the judges hadn’t been able to see Harry’s talent had Louis angry in a way that his own dismissal didn’t.

Louis didn’t seek the other boy out as they all prepared to leave. He didn’t want to see the sadness on Harry’s face or, for that matter, for Harry to see Louis’s own sadness.

He was surprised when a production assistant showed up and started saying they needed some of the contestants back on stage. Louis’s heart hammered quickly in his chest as both his and Harry’s names were called. Louis didn’t know what it all meant, but his stomach fluttered in anticipation, even as Harry muttered angrily that the producers were only planning to embarrass them. Louis wasn’t sure if Harry was right or not, but he was leaning towards this being a good thing, not so much because he was included but because Harry was. They had to have realized their mistake and wanted Harry back. There was no way they could get rid of him.

The five boys who’d been called were lined up on one side of the stage while the girls took the other. Louis’s own heartbeat was so loud that he had to strain his ears in order to hear Simon’s voice as he announced that they were being put into a group. Harry was in his arms before Louis could even process what it all meant. He was going through. Harry was going through. They were going to be in a group together, meaning their fates had just been completely intertwined. Louis yelled and jumped and held on to the other boy in joy. He wasn’t sure what the competition would bring for them, but Louis had high hopes that it would be pretty bright as long as Harry was there with him.

The gap between boot camp and the judges’ houses was nearly unbearable for Louis. The five boys had exchanged telephone numbers, and in an attempt to get to know each other, they were all in almost constant communication even after they had left London. Louis and Harry, in particular, were rarely not talking to each other somehow, whether it was text, phone, or Skype. Hannah said she thought it was cute that Louis and Harry seemed to have formed such a close friendship so quickly, but Louis thought that it was only a matter of time before she put together that there was something more there. Something that Louis couldn’t bring himself to tell her.

Louis still wasn’t entirely sure what Harry’s feelings toward him even were. For all he knew, Harry was straight. At the very least, they were forming a quicker friendship than Louis had ever experienced, and it might have been his own wishful thinking, but there seemed to be more there. Louis just couldn’t shake the instinct that this whirlwind of a friendship had to be a result of mutual feelings. It couldn’t only be him. Not when it was this strong.

Louis was still trying to sort out the mess of his feelings when he arrived at Harry’s stepdad’s bungalow for their “getting to know each other before judges’ houses” thing that they had planned. Louis’s hands would start to tremble in anticipation every time he remembered that he’d be with Harry 24/7 for an extended period of time. The other boys would be there too of course, and Louis knew he needed to get to know them better as well. Perhaps more so than he did Harry at this point. That didn’t shake his anticipation over Harry.

The bungalow wasn’t large by any means when you filled it with five teenage boys, but it was also nice and had a pool. That was really all Louis could ask for when he was being left there with four other teenage boys and extremely limited supervision. He was the first one there other than Harry because he hadn’t been able to contain his excitement. It was embarrassing when he was coming from the farthest away except for Niall, who had to fly in.

Harry didn’t seem to mind though, just smiled brightly from the moment Louis arrived and excitedly showed him all around the house.

“And this,” Harry declared happily as they exited through the back of the house, “is the pool.”

He held his arms out wide as if this were a majestic reveal, and Louis applauded loudly in exaggerated appreciation.

“We shall be getting to know each other well, that pool and I.” Louis spoke in a pretentious voice.

Just then there was commotion at the front of the house, and Harry’s smile was even brighter as he began hurrying back into the house and to the front door to see which of them had arrived next.

It was Niall. He was waving goodbye to the taxi driver as he pulled away from the curb. Louis wondered how the one coming from Ireland managed to get there before the other two who were already in England, and Louis wondered if that meant he was dealing with very unpunctual bandmates. If that were true, then between Louis and them they’d be in a bit of trouble.

As it turned out, neither Liam nor Zayn were late. By the time Harry had finished giving Niall the same tour he’d given Louis, all five boys were there and being shown around the house. They settled in with ease. Bags were strewn about the house, with some even open and spilling out their contents. All five of them hadn’t even been there an hour, and they’d already managed to make the entire bungalow look like a typical teenage boy’s bedroom.

That night they settled around the fire pit with Harry right next to Louis’s side. Niall had his guitar out and was strumming random songs that the boys would all join in with. They really had no idea how to be a boyband, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have fun. The other four boys all had talent, and Louis could tell they each wanted this as badly as he did. He didn’t know any of the four all that well yet, not even Harry, but Louis could see them being great mates. There were much worse band mates he could have been stuck with at any rate.

Harry, in particular, was a blessing. Being knocked out as a solo artist and put in a group would have been worth it a million times over as long as it meant Louis got to know Harry. The fact that he thought that so soon after meeting the boy scared Louis a bit, but not even that fear was enough to deter him from getting closer to Harry. Louis’s wish for his own fate as a contestant had been inextricably tied with Harry’s fate, and Louis had to believe that meant something.

The closer they got, the more Louis realized that Harry was unlike anyone he had ever met. There was a charm about him that got almost anyone wrapped around his finger, yet he had a heart of gold that would never let him use the charm for malicious purposes like Louis probably would with the same advantages. Harry was also a total dork, and Louis couldn’t help but believe that in most circumstances, he would have found Harry annoying. So why didn’t he? It had to be the charm and just the outright gorgeousness, but Louis couldn’t help thinking that there was something else. Something that just made it impossible for Louis Tomlinson to not be completely and utterly enthralled with Harry Styles.

The enthrallment only increased over the course of their stay at the bungalow. Over the weeks between the bungalow and the judges’ houses, all five boys kept up a near constant communication, but Harry’s calls were always what excited Louis the most.

He was excited to go to Spain for a number of reasons. The chance to live his dream should have been top of that list, but just getting to spend time with Harry was starting to overtake that dream more and more. The two went hand-in-hand though, and Louis was more determined than ever to do well because he needed Harry to live his dream too. The boy deserved to have his talent recognized, and if they could do that as One Direction, then Louis would have plenty of time with Harry in the future. It was a brighter future than Louis had dreamt up for himself before The X Factor.

Whatever happened with One Direction, Louis was determined to keep Harry in his life. But winning this competition was the surest way to do that. This would be the hardest Louis had ever worked for anything in his life.


End file.
